Dyslexia and Giftedness

Meet Caleb. He’s gifted, with extremely high verbal comprehension, while at the same time, his dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD means he struggles to read, write, and act like everyone else. This results in an interesting mix - he is fiercely independent, creative, and inquisitive. He’s always coming at things from a different angle, and putting disparate things together - both physical things and abstract concepts. He loves to think, talk, and make connections, but resists putting anything down on paper. He loves to do his own thing, but resists doing what others ask of him. He wins poetry contests, but his writing is full of misspelled words and homonym errors.

Caleb is twice-exceptional. He has distinguishing strengths alongside complex challenges. This uneven profile of being far ahead in some areas and far behind in others is known as asynchronous development. It can often be challenging to know how to best support and even identify twice-exceptional students. In the case of a twice-exceptional dyslexic student, they may be able to use their gifts at language and processing to hide their struggles with reading. This can sometimes be called stealth dyslexia. For other students, their dyslexia takes center stage and masks their gifts, leaving them and those who want to see them succeed feel frustrated and confused.

Dyslexic individuals have difficulty with reading, spelling, writing, and sequencing. Dyslexic individuals are also highly creative problem solvers, often entrepreneurs and leaders in their fields. (Part of this comes from their brain wiring, and part comes from the fact that challenges breed resilience, which is a necessary element for success.)

Gifted traits and dyslexia traits can often overlap. Gifted traits include advanced reasoning, curiosity, problem-solving, creativity, and intense interests. Many gifted traits are the same as the gifts that come along with dyslexia. Gifted individuals and dyslexic individuals often prefer hands-on, project-based learning.

In order to best support twice-exceptional dyslexic learners, it is important to consider 3 elements: interventions, accommodations, and strengths. In particular, twice-exceptional students often carry an emotional toll of trying to meet grade-level literacy demands while being intellectually ahead. Educators often struggle to find ways to nurture these students’ advanced intellect while also providing strategies that work for helping dyslexic students learn to read.

2e dyslexic learners may understand concepts at a very high level but struggle to express them on paper. They may compensate for these struggles by finding creative solutions to assignments. Educators can support these learners by providing flexible options for students, while staying true to the core goals of assignments. Some effective strategies for 2e dyslexic students include:

• Strength-based learning: encourage projects in areas of interest to ignite reading/writing

• Multiple ways to show mastery: oral presentations, multimedia projects, concept maps, or creative demonstrations, for example

• Explicit literacy support: phonemic awareness instruction, structured reading programs (e.g., Orton-Gillingham)

• Assistive technology and accommodations that allow access to curriculum without diminishing intellectual challenge: audiobooks, text-to-speech

• Executive function scaffolds: breaking down assignments, providing templates

• Positive identity building: celebrate creative problem-solving, innovation, and oral strengths, not just literacy skills

Here’s an example of one parent’s story of how a teacher centered her dyslexic student’s strengths, while also supporting her challenges:

“Given that my daughter is dyslexic, it's always a gamble whether teachers will focus on her gifted storytelling and writing skills, or focus on her weaknesses with handwriting, grammar, and spelling. So it was with a bit of trepidation that my husband and I sat down at our fall parent-teacher conference. Our fears were quickly put to rest - as soon as we sat down, he took a deep breath and said, slowly and with gravitas, “Do you know that your child is… a writer?” I could feel the tears of relief coming to my eyes immediately. He enthusiastically pulled out examples of her work, visibly excited about her creative storytelling skills. As we and the teacher looked over her work together, he mentioned that the next steps will be for him to work with our daughter on her spelling and grammar, beginning with his scaffolding during the editing process, and ultimately with the goal of her editing these elements on her own. My husband and I left feeling grateful that our daughter has had a teacher who recognizes and cultivates her gifts while also helping her work through her challenges, thereby bolstering her confidence and voice.”

Diagnoses are empowering and are a critical first step. To get started, parents should seek 2e-informed evaluations to assess both giftedness and dyslexia. 

Dyslexia doesn’t limit intelligence, creativity, or potential. In fact, thinking dyslexically is a strength. When giftedness and dyslexia are both recognized and supported, learners can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.